"I want to be in it. Man, I'm just born to be in it."
Me. Me. Me.
Yep, that's what we're looking for in a president - someone who is there to fulfill his own ambitions. Trump is a lot of Me Me Me, but at least his sales pitch is "I will win for all of us. I'm the only who can win!" We're the ultimate purpose of his effort. With Beto, he's the ultimate purpose of his effort.
You go, Beto. Go far, far away.
Trump has demonstrated that you can get elected in spite of being a narcissistic, self-promoting, amoral asshole, provided that you get the gleeful support of slightly over one half of the population by royally honking off the other half. You can bet that the other politicians have noticed, and they are clearly trying to do the same thing. The only difference is going to be in which half of the population they choose to reduce to gibbering, sputtering fury. O'Rourke is just following in Trump's footsteps. With our current political party structure, I'm not sure that there is any way to keep this from happening, so you can expect the state of politics to get a heck of a lot worse before it gets better.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to reply to Tim's comment but don't have time. Briefly Trump was elected because he wasn't part of the state of politics as is was [still is in the opposition to him]. This division has come about from 60 years of 'progressivism' aka communism taking the country in a really bad direction. Trump was the only one who could see this and more importantly would fight it. If it takes 'a narcissistic, self-promoting, amoral asshole' to do it, so be it. [I think he's a mensch underneath it all.]
ReplyDeleteHere's what he's up against.
https://quillette.com/2019/03/09/progressivism-and-the-west/
^!
ReplyDeletellion...........Please explain to an old guy who isn't too conversant with this kind of thing!
ReplyDeleteI'm currently reading VDH's The Case for Trump. I think it's well done and it doesn't paper over Trump's massive flaws. Like ligneus, I think Trump's belligerence is actually what we needed. We had to have a jerk who was willing to stand up to the fascist left. Second, I think what differentiates him from the rest is that he wants America to win. The rest all want us to be well-behaved. There's a difference. I don't think he can always articulate ahead of time what winning means, but I think he has a gut feel for it.
ReplyDeleteWitness the way he's dealt with ISIS and North Korea. Also, witness his willingness to get into trade wars in exchange for better deals. I don't know if the deals are significantly better, but I like the way he's willing to fight. I didn't and still don't see that in the rest on either side.
I just made it up -- the "^" points up (specifically, to your post), the "!" indicates agreement; so, it's a thumbs-up.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should try ^!!!! as "thumbs-up"
... thumbs-up, or, "what he said!"
ReplyDeleteOK, I should have been able to figure that out!
ReplyDelete^!!!! Enough thumbs there for two people!
ReplyDeletebtw, Way back in time and in the mother country of the English language, we just said:
'Thumbs up' not Two Thumbs Up as here in N America, the 'Two' is redundant, Nicht Wahr?
Those are supposed to be four fingers beside a thumb.
ReplyDeleteI think that we say "two thumbs up" just in case we ever want to say "one thumb up".
'Those are supposed to be four fingers beside a thumb.'
ReplyDeleteThis is all obviously above my pay grade!
People what say "Nicht wahr?" don't get to say, "That's above my pay grade".
ReplyDeleteApologies! I see that could be construed as slightly mocking, was not my intention, mocking myself more likely for being too slow or dim to figure it out for myself.
ReplyDeleteI understood; I was teasing you back (I couldn't think of anything I could manage to write in the simple German I still recall).
ReplyDeleteDu bist ein Mensch!
ReplyDeleteJa, wohl! Sicher bist du auch.
ReplyDelete